The Phenomenology of Liturgical We

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenological structure of liturgical experience, highlighting the role and function of affectivity in constituting the sense and feeling of “us” in liturgy. First, it emphasizes the role of a plurality of pre-reflective bodily awareness of each other as one of the minimal preconditions for the affective constitution of a liturgical “we”. Second, considering the corporate nature of worship and the theological primacy of the “we” in liturgy, it elaborates on the proposal that affective experiential structure of it hinges on the constitutive interdependence of I, you, and we, rejecting an undifferentiated homogeneity of the liturgical we.

Keywords: phenomenology, affectivity, liturgy, theology, We


[Full Article PDF]